Monday, December 8, 2008

My Texas ....

5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America builtover water.

(and although damaged, it survived Hurricane Ike this past Sept.)

6. The Heisman Trophy ws named after John William Heisman who was the firstfull-time coach at

Rice University in Houston .

7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in NorthAmerica .

8. Arkansas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America's onlyremaining flock of whooping cranes.

9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.

10. The worst natural disaster in U.S . history was in 1900, caused by ahurricane, in which over 8,000

lives were lost on Galveston Island.

11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was " Houston ."

12. King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island .

13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43" in 24hours in and around Alvin

in July of 1979.

14. Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, (known as theConstitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union ) insteadof by annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height asthe U.S. Flag, and may divide into 5 states.

15. A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.

16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.

17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.

18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington -on- the Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston , Velasco, West Columbia and Austin

19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is tallerthan the Capitol Building in Washington DC (by 7 feet).

20. The name " Texas " comes from the Hasini Indian word "tejas" meaningfriends.

Tejas is not Spanish for Texas

21. The State Mascot is the Armadillo (an interesting bit of trivia aboutthe armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, whichsplits into four, and they either have four males or four females.).

22. The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston .